Monday, September 29, 2008

Director forks out RM1,800 for a pomelo - Star

IPOH: Sept 29, 2008

How much would you pay for a pomelo?

Company director Cheong Kong Fitt, 48, was willing to part with a whopping RM1,800 for just one fruit when it was auctioned off for charity during the Perak DAP fund-raising dinner here on Saturday.

Asked why he was willing to spend so much, Cheong simply said: “It’s for charity and the money will go to a good cause.”

He declined to comment further.

Charity auction: Participants checking the pomelos to be auctioned during the Perak DAP fund-raising dinner in Ipoh on Saturday night.

The man who shied away from media attention triggered a round of wild applause when he emerged the highest bidder during the auction.

He was also thanked profusely by state DAP leaders, including Perak party chief Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham and state exco member A. Sivanesan.

The dinner, held to raise funds for the party to conduct its charitable works, was attended by more than 5,000 people at Dataran DBI.

During his speech earlier, Perak Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin announced that the state government would be naming a street in the city’s Little India area after former Perak DAP chairman, the late P. Patto.

“We want him to be remembered always as the true person who had fought for the rights of the Indians.

“We want people to remember him for his convictions,” he said.

Patto, a former teacher, was at one time DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang’s political secretary and stood against MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu for the Sungai Siput parliamentary seat during the 1974 and 1990 general elections.

He died in 1995 from heart complications.

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